The Unknown Variable

This chapter has now been Beta'd

Marvel/Disney and JK own anything that you have seen anywhere else, so send the legal bloodhounds to them!

Part of me was surprised how fast Tony was able to put together my new Arc (he refused to do his own until mine was done) the other part… thought 'Only Tony' and left it at that.

He had taken into consideration the modifications I had come up with (that I had forgotten about until Jarvis reminded me… he remembered almost everything) and while I built the housing and casing, Tony made the palladium core.

All in all, my new Arc was done before five am… then… we just had to put it in.

"I can do it myself!" I stated, my arms crossed in front of my chest.

"I know you can, but I'm going to do it!" Tony sated, and I saw the unsaid, 'I'm worried and want to help' behind his words.

"ARG!" I exclaimed, giving up. We had been arguing for the past forty-five minutes, and no one was getting anywhere.

"Fine, you can put it in!" I huffed in defeat and sat down in my chair. While we were building the Arc, we had also set up a workspace for me as well. After we found another desk and chair in the storage room (Pepper had ordered them incase Tony ever broke his) and moved some of the tools around, I now had my own little corner where I could work on whatever I wanted.

I also found my laptop, that I was very happy didn't get trashed or broken while I was away, and it was now sitting on my desk charging.

"So, how is this going to work?" I asked, causing Tony to stutter, as he just now realized just where my Core was located.

While my Core was about a half and inch to an inch smaller than his own, it was also placed a bit higher, not a whole lot, but enough that it was in a compromising position, but could be a whole lot worse.

If I was wearing a normal tank top- for example, one of those spaghetti strap ones that just cover your cleavage- you would be able to see the top half of the Reactor.

"Just go put on a tank top," Tony replied while shrugging as he pulled out all the necessary equipment… I didn't even ask HOW he had a heart monitor…

I rolled my eyes…there was a reason I was in his t-shirt, "I don't have one with me." I drawled.

That caused Tony to freeze, and the very awkward conversation to continue. We both agreed that I couldn't just take the t-shirt off. Apparently, there is only so much of your teenage daughter you want to see… especially your newly found teenage daughter.

So eventually (after another half-hour) we found a compromise, well… Tony did- by throwing the sheet at me.

Which let me to be lying on some medical table thing (not even asking how he got that ether) that was at an angle where I was partly laying partly standing, with the t-shirt off, wrapped up in the sheet. The sheet was just low enough that Tony could work on my Arc, while covering enough that Tony was comfortable.

I felt like I was in a cocoon… or a burrito. Personally, I didn't have a problem just wearing my bra, it wasn't like he wouldn't see anything that he wouldn't if I was wearing a bikini, which I told him.

He replied with a question, asking if I was really planning on swimming any time soon.

Truthfully, no, I had no intention of getting in any body of water at all, just the thought of it sent shivers down my spine and unwanted memories to the forefront of my mind.

I tried focusing on ACDC playing in the background- who knew Tony could listen to music that wasn't blasting- but it was no use, my mind refused to be distracted.

I talked Tony through the procedure to disconnect the Arc from the socket in my chest. I was now quite happy that I had put the connection panel closer to the top, than farther in. Otherwise, Tony wouldn't have been able to reach it, his hands were too big; though it was originally designed so I could change and repair any parts if needed.

"Ok, I'm going to disconnect it on three, ready?" Tony said, my old flickering Core in one hand, the other on the base plate.

"One,"

I took a deep breath and braced myself, although my Arc had failed a few times recently, I never had it completely disconnected before. I didn't tell Tony this, but I had no idea if anything was going to happen.

"Two," my hands clenched the sheet tightly, my knuckles turning white…

"Three." With a click and a twist I felt my Core disappear and instantly it became harder to breathe.

My eyes snapped open, to see Tony trying to insert the new Arc in, "Hurry… up…" I gasped, and I heard the heart monitor starting to beep faster with my increasing heart rate.

"Trying." Tony muttered, fiddling with the connection wires and socket.

Without the current of electricity constantly running through it, my body felt cold and empty. I had to really focus to move, and labored to breath.

"Try… harder…" I hissed between gasps. Part of my mind was fighting with the other part. I was still holding up the invisibility on my burns, but it was draining me faster. I could already feel myself fading, and nothing happened when the connection click was heard.

"NOT WORKING!" I growled as my vision began to blur and my thoughts wander.

"It's connected!" Tony replied in desperation. For some reason the energy just wasn't going from the new Core, to me.

"Fix it!" I gasped, as my back arched against the blackness that was closing it.

'Drop the invisibility!' some voice in the back of my head hissed at me.

'No,' I thought back to myself, wondering if I was finally crazy.

My eyes squeezed shut, as I tried to fight back against the fogginess that was quickly consuming my thoughts… I needed to stay aware… to help…

"Sir, her heart rate is becoming dangerously high; it seems that her self-estimated survival time was off…I estimate her succumbing to Cardiac Arrest within a minuet…"

"Shut up, Jarvis!" I heard Tony say, and my limbs slowly felt as if they were being filled with lead. I couldn't feel them, and I couldn't move them. I knew it was my nerves failing because of lack of energy.

The Heart Monitor went crazy when my heart missed a beat, and my hand shot out, grabbing onto the monitor, and sucked it dry, then used the power plug to absorb energy from the wall.

"Not... going… to… last…" I stated coolly…I felt very detached while trying to stabilize myself, "Hurry… up…" even drawing energy from the wall wasn't going to last, I was too used to the high power from the Core.

I felt a hold hand on my shoulder, and knew Death was there, even if I couldn't see him at the moment.

"GOT IT!" Tony exclaimed, and my head shot up, as wave after cooling wave of stable energy coursed through my body; and Death's grip vanished.

I gasped and dropped my arm back to my side, and couldn't help the small smile that appeared as my heart rate returned to normal.

"We're gonna have to fix that." I stated, as Tony helped me down from the table thing.

"Not, now though." Tony said, clearly shaken by my close call.

"No," I agreed, "Not now…"

I walked over to Tony's desk, careful not to trip over the sheet, and picked up a small mirror. My new Core was much more powerful than my last one; I was practically humming with static now. We had doubled the rotation, just like I suggested, and now the core was also twisted.

While the shell and cover for the Palladium core was still circle, the Core itself now had a figure eight look to it… a very wide… or was it tall… figure eight. Instead of there being a diagonal, where one loop became another, it looked like the circle went straight down, before becoming another one. Like two circles slightly overlapping.

It looked cool, and I had a feeling that my powers would only grow with the new power-source. I shivered; time to put the t-shirt back on.

Tony and I were back sitting in the convertible, he was tinkering with some parts to make his own Arc and I was just watching him, curled up under the sheet. The exchange had taken a lot out of me.

"Why did you start failing so quickly, I thought we had more time?" Tony asked, I had a feeling he had been trying to figure out how to phrase the question since it happened.

I shrugged, 'Because I was an idiot and kept my invisibility up, hiding my burns from you, while it was draining me dry.'

"and I thought that when you grabbed the monitor, it would help. Absorbing the energy and all." Tony continued when I hesitated.

"Well, the way I see it," I stated, deciding to go with the truth with what happened with the monitor. "For years I was used to be drinking, let's say, a certain level of electricity from the normal power plugs, or generator. But when I got the Arc, I had a lot more power coursing through my body, which is why my ability with sparks showed up. But when we took away that large amount of power, and I tried to go back to the lesser source of energy…"

"Your body was so addicted to the new, more powerful, sustainable powerhouse, that the older, weaker current could no longer support you." Tony finished the train of thought; it was awesome having someone else around who was just as smart as you.

"Basically." I replied, shifting into a more comfortable position on the seat.

The next few minutes passed in silence as I watched Tony, with U and Dummy handing him tools, work on creating his new Arc.

"So, just what can you do with your 'sparks'?" Tony finally asked.

I shrugged, "A variety of things."

"Like…" Tony pressed, wanting to stifle his curiosity.

"Well, until….recently…" I couldn't bring myself to say Afghanistan, and I saw Tony nod, saying he understood what I meant, "I could only create the bolts… as you saw… create a shield…something like an EMP blast… and absorb energy from other sources.

"Remember those times where I disappeared randomly and you couldn't find me?" I asked, not mentioning the cave, though it was pretty obvious.

Tony nodded so I continued,

"Well, at first that was my invisibility kicking in, I just didn't know it, but then, that time when I was sitting under the table, I realized what I was doing and experimented with it.

"My sparks create an EMP like shield," I started, but once again Tony finished my thought.

"That basically uses multiple electrical currents to reflect the light and place you into a spectrum that we are not able to see." Tony concluded, his own brain thinking up solutions.

"That's my theory, anyway, not only can I hide myself beneath that shield, but also I can encase other things within it besides myself." I raised my hand and Tony's screwdriver that was sitting on the dashboard disappeared.

"It's still there, but you just can't see it." I told him, and let the field drop. "While we were looking for bits of Palladium, I wondered that since it was such a good energy conductor and creator, if it would be able to hold my sparks. And it does, using some let over scraps, I was able to make energy balls that centered on the Palladium… of course I didn't work with them much… not after blasting the wall." I said sheepishly.

"So that's what that was." Tony commented, as U handed him another piece.

"Yeah…that was an accident." I chuckled quietly before continuing, "And while we were at the base… I discovered that because the brain is controlled by electric pulses,"

"Control the pulse, control the brain… interesting, but not my favorite one." Tony commented, shuddering a bit. His brain was his biggest gift, to take that away… yeah I wouldn't like it either.

"I've decided only to use that in emergencies." I assured him.

"Good," he replied.

"What about the Teleporting thing?" Tony asked after a moment of silence.

My eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "What teleporting thing? I can't teleport."

"Well, you can do something. I thought that I had just blacked out. When we were… free falling, I remember the suit coming apart and hoping that you were ok. Then there was a bright flash of light, I felt as if I had just stuck my finger into an open socket, and then the next thing I knew I was half buried in sand, and you lying unconscious next to me. For a moment I thought you had died."

I remained silent; my brain going a million miles an hour, "Hmm," was basically all I could come up with.

I looked across the room, to the other side of the lab, right next to the ramp. My eyes narrowed as I glared intensely at that spot, then I felt my spark flare wildly, and the next thing I knew, I fell to the ground on the other side of the room; exactly where I had stared.

"Well, that was unexpected." I commented, standing up slowly. 'That really took it out of me.'

I looked back over at Tony, he was staring wide eyed at me, his hair was smoking and half of his face was black, covered in soot. He was frozen in his spot, and there was a scorch mark where I had been sitting.

I looked above where I had been, and noticed that the ceiling was also scorched. Then I looked down at my feet and noticed that both the ceiling and floor where I was also had scorch marks.

"I think… you should practice that outside." Tony finally said. "Don't need bolts of lightning destroying the house."

'Bolts of… wow.' I thought to myself. "Awesome."

Hey! I'm updating really fast! I hope you all are enjoying this, and I hope that Penny is slightly more realistic than she was in the beginning. Thanks for all of you who favoreted, reviewed, or followed.

Thanks to my Beta, (even if you have disappeared)
Till next time
Cp